The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to a system for maintaining mappings between information handling systems that are wirelessly coupled to PHYs.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Some information handling systems such as, for example, switches, servers, and storage devices, are sometimes positioned in racks and connected together in order to provide a datacenter. For example, a plurality of servers may be connected to a Top Of Rack (TOR) switch that is connected to a network, and the TOR switch may route data from the network and to the servers, from the servers and to the network, as well as between different components in the rack. The servers and TOR switches are typically connected together using conventional cabling such as, for example, Ethernet cables that are configured to transmit the data between the TOR switch and the servers. However, because racks can hold dozens of servers, the connection of between those servers and the TOR switch requires many cables that must be routed through the rack, and that cabling can become cumbersome, obstructing access to the TOR switch, servers, and/or other features of the rack. It is desirable to eliminate the use of conventional cables in connecting devices in a rack, but the use of wireless communication raises a number of issues.
For example, any particular server may be “mapped” to a first PHY chip that is provided with a first port on the Ethernet switch chip in the TOR switch due to the first PHY chip having been configured for that server to provide a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), an Access Control List (ACL), and/or a variety of other server/PHY configurations known in the art. As such, it is desirable for the mapping to be maintained (i.e., for that server to continue to communicate through the TOR switch via the first PHY chip.) However, when the server connects to the first PHY chip wirelessly using a first antenna on the TOR switch that is coupled to the first PHY chip via a first radio Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), the physical relocation of that server may result in the server wirelessly connecting to a second antenna on the TOR switch that is coupled to a second radio ASIC that may connect the server to a second PHY chip provided with a second port on the Ethernet switch chip that has not been configured for that server. The movement of the server such that it connects to the second PHY chip requires a network administrator to go to the physical location of the TOR switch and reconfigure the system. As such, while the wireless connection of servers to the TOR switch should increase the ease with which those servers may be physically relocated, issues such as those discussed above impede such physical relocation due to the need for an administrator to perform manual reconfigurations to maintain proper operation of the system.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for maintaining device/PHY mappings.